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Rupertism
The Church of Rupert is one of the major religions of the world. At its peak, the Rupertist religious movement had over 110 million adherents. Today the movement is growing with almost 20 million active adherents and 34 million overall believers. Rupertism holds several major beliefs at its core which is called the core doctrine: # The divinity of King Rupert I and all of his successors to the throne of the Rupertland Empire; # The sacredness of the Rupert Island and the planet earth; # The supremacy of the Didicit Dux ''(Learned Bishop) of the Church of Rupert; # The importance of self which is recognized through regular self-reflection, meditation, and peace; # The essential life journey to heaven, which is an inevitability, and should be done while the follower is alive on earth rather than after death. The life journey is called vita iter and the learned state is called cognitioni. Didicit Dux is the leader of the church, and is the ambassador of King Rupert I. The Didicit Dux is elected by the Council of the Great Cognitioni (the 200-300 leading bishops of the church). The Great Cognitioni are selected by the reigning monarch from the Bishops of the Church of Rupert who are appointed by the Didicit Dux. The Bishops and the Didicit Dux choose and train Priests and Spiritual Leaders who carry out the message of the divine to the people. Following a massive decline in Rupertists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Queen Ella called for the Council of Queen Ella in 1921. The Council rejuvenated and revised the entire nature of the church, including the core doctrine which has not been touched since the establishment of the House of Daveners. The Council moved the focus of weekly church gatherings from worship to reflection. The Council also removed many of the barriers and old fashioned traditions of the church. Today, the Church of Rupert is one of only a few growing western churches. Roles of the church leadership priest vs spiritual leader Vita iter process The vita iter process is the life of each member of the Rupertist church. The end goal of vita iter is to reach the "learnt state" of cognitioni. The vast majority of people reach this state in the afterlife, however, few may reach the state during their earthly life. The cognitioni often become priests. Before the Council of Queen Ruberta II in 1671, only priests could become cognitioni. However, now most leaders do not practice until they are recognized as having reached the cognitioni state. There are two ways to become cognitioni. The most common is by being nominated by the Church or Gathering Place they attend. The Church's spiritual leader or priest must write a 2,000 word letter of recommendation to the ''Board for the Search for the Cognitioni. The Board will then lightly vet the person (sometimes an interview is conducted, but often the person's nomination is accepted fairly quickly). The nominated person then must express their beliefs or experiences, as related to Rupertism in any medium; called a vita iter work ''(often a book of non-fiction, sometimes fiction, a series of artwork, or recently by becoming a spiritual speaker), this can be done over any period of time (often five-to-ten years, but some cognitioni take sixty or more years to finish their work). Once the vita iter work is complete, it is examined thoroughly by the ''Board. The Board accepts only about 60% of people who make it to this point. The nominated person is then forwarded to the Council of the Enlightened City Cognitioni (which consists of all the Cognitioni in the City of Rupert, City of Lincoln, and City of Pompeii). The Council meets annually to discuss those nominated (typically about 250). These Cognitioni will accept approximately 40% of nominated people. The people accepted by the Council are then finally forwarded to a jury of members of the Council of Great Cognitioni, where about 75% of those nominated are accepted as Cognitioni after an extensive tribunal to decide their worthiness of the sacred title. The second way to become cognitioni is by nomination by the Monarch of Rupertland. The Monarch can nominate anyone, and once they are nominated, they are very rarely denied acceptance into the Cognitioni. This method accepts both Rupertists and non-Rupertists. People recognized as cognitioni There are 24,102 people who have been recognized as being in the cognitioni state of mind, after a successful vita iter. The youngest cognitioni alive today is 24 years old, and the median age for the cognitioni is 61. There are several famous people (Rupertist and not), who have been confirmed as cognitioni. There is confusion that a monarch is automatically recognized as a cognitioni, but this is not true. Only after the Monarch is nominated by the St.Paul Cathedral-Basilica can they begin their process of nomination (most monarchs are nominated one day after their coronation). The monarch must also create a vita iter work before becoming a cognitioni. For this reason, Queen Ruberta III is not yet a cognitioni.